Watchmen Update: Billy Crudup is … Doctor Manhattan

Besides having a name that probably got him picked on brutally as a kid, “Mission Impossible III’s” Billy Crudup would seem to have landed a major role in Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Watchmen” adaptation — that of Dr. Manhattan, the comic’s only superpowered individual, who could basically do anything, but chooses not to. As I recall, Dr. Manhattan was the comic’s version of Dr. Data, trying his best to be human and oftentimes failing.

A very reliable source tells me that Snyder has settled on Crudup for the role of Watchmen’s only super-powered character, a scientist who accidentally gets annihilated on an atomic level and reconstructs himself into a big, naked, blue, floating demigod.

Crudup is a good actor, and playing a naked blue guy — well, it’s a naked blue guy.